He is considered the god like figure because of his abilities and truth be told because he passed away on track.

If he hadn't he would not have been held in such high regard.

I personally believe he is not the greatest F1 driver ever, top 5 but not the greatest.

man unt devil

good morning manx --

i suspect at your age ( 34 or whatever you told me you are some time ago ) you never saw senna"s career at all , so with respect manx that makes you very naive as to what he could do in uncompetitive machinery and his quite incredible all round mental abilities inside the car compared to his rivals -

as to his death --- other greats have also died on the track but it is just senna and senna alone that is constantly thought of as the bench mark to which all other drivers are measured -

if you have an opinion as to who you think is better than senna i will gladly and good natured get into it with you and believe me i know every little nuance and there machines of everybody he drove against

Senna died when I was 14, I was in secondary school, was not a little baby who cannot form an opinion.

I believe Schumacher's better than Senna and I also believe Prost was an equal.

There is so much information available these days that you do not have to witness things first hadn before you form an opinion.

I was not born during the second world war but know about hitler.

man devil

did not mean to cause offence manx about your knowledge of senna but as you know i am a very logical person and think and talk logic -

as you were 4 yrs old when senna"s f1 career started (1984)i suspect you never saw anything of senna"s career so in effect you know very little of his career other than you tube clips and what you may have read and there is nothing wrong with that , but the fact remains you wont have any in depth knowledge of the fine detail of his career unless you saw it in its entirety -

as for michael ( schumacher ) you only had to watch 1993 ( when you was 3 yrs old ) when micheal and senna had reletively equal machinery , in fact micheal had a better rory byrne chassis and a more powerful works engine but senna decimated him , to realise the gulf in ability between the two --

i also was not born during the 2nd world war and logically i know nothing of the fine detail of hitlers infamous career

I was 13 in 1993

man devil

fair enough i miscalculated --- silly me

as for prost being senna"s equal , you only had to watch the 2 yrs they spent at mclaren together in equal machinery to realise that senna very much had alain"s number -- so much so that prost ran away from senna rather than spend a 3rd year with him --

So martial, please clarify if I am wrong here but what you are saying is that if you did not witness something when it happened, your opinion is not valid on said subject as you do not know the finer details.

Therefore, since you did not witness other eras in F1 as you were young or was not born, therefore Senna cannot be the greatest. You can argue he is the greatest you have seen (which is debatable) but he is not the greatest.

Using your logic of course.

man devil

come on now manx you are being a little oversensitive mate and just trying to pick holes out of my thread about a dead driver / icon /which considering it is about a dead driver is a little tactless -

you think senna is only held in high regard because he died on the track , schumacher is better , prost is his equal , i just put forward 3 logical and factual points that say otherwise to all 3 arguments ,

lets not forget you were very young ( and there is nothing wrong with that )when all 3 drivers were around so it is understandable you do not understand the fine detail of there careers where as myself being older than you i understandably do because i was old enough to appreciate every nuance of there careers -

there must be some reason why just about every poll of substance puts senna as the best ever and i think the people that know are a little more logical and knowledgeable than to suggest it is because he died --

Not being sensitive martial just trying to understand your argument.

With the polls, since a lot of the people voting did not witness his career first hand as well, we cannot take their votes seriously as well.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Martial, I generally do not consider polls an effective method of measurement as they can be influenced by a lot of factors.

Regarding who you want me to think of with all those traits, a certain Michael Schumacher

I never have understood why fans of Senna generally don't like Schumacher.

Schumacher was always lambasted for pushing people off the track or into the pit wall, but yet when Senna did it it was praiseworthy.

Senna was a fabulous driver, but a driver of his time. Several of his antics would have earned him a dsq in more modern times.

This is the problem with comparing drivers of different era's, they can only be as good as their machinery, rivals, and rules allow them to be.

comment by N_six0six (U13776)
posted 1 hour, 16 minutes ago
I never have understood why fans of Senna generally don't like Schumacher.

Schumacher was always lambasted for pushing people off the track or into the pit wall, but yet when Senna did it it was praiseworthy.

Senna was a fabulous driver, but a driver of his time. Several of his antics would have earned him a dsq in more modern times.

This is the problem with comparing drivers of different era's, they can only be as good as their machinery, rivals, and rules allow them to be.




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Agree with pretty much all of that.

man devil

yeh agreed any poll is never a cast iron absolute , but when it is the most credible poll ever undertaken anywhere by anybody with 217 F1 drivers from 1950 onwards with 9000 GP starts and 270 or whatever wins between them it has to be given a certain amount of respect ---

not forgetting that senna received nearly 3 times more votes than anybody else as the outright no 1 which probably speaks volumes on the weight of opinion by said experts for him -

n six

alot of the silly schumacher / senna / bickering originated on the original bbc 606 that is now no more ,

the problem with the schumacher disciples on there ( and i debated with many of them ) was they were too young to have even senna"s career or have any real knowledge of what he or his machinery and his rivals machinery was all about so any level of intelligent debate with micheal"s fans was all but impossible hence the silly rivalry and bickering that followed -

man devil

i was never one that criticised micheals on track shenanigans as funnily enough i never thought he was blatantly cheating when he did have a little biff with somebody -
think most of the indifference towards him was after aus 94 when he collided with hill in so doing stopped damon from winning the 94 WDC
-------- i dont think the english public as fickle as they are ever forgave micheal for that --